Sinai Akiba Academy

Background

Sinai Akiba Academy in West Los Angeles offers an education that develops the mind, heart, and soul of kids from birth through middle school. Students are introduced to a life of personal growth, sensitivity, responsibility, and intellectual inquiry that is shaped by Jewish virtue and respect for diversity of thought. The Sinai Parenting Center offers courses to parents and their children from birth to the age of two-years-old. The center uses the latest child development theories combined with cutting-edge neuroscience to create classes that provide insight to parents while being a lot of fun for children. Together, parents and their children explore the world and discuss the joys and challenges of parenting as they grow alongside other families in the community, enabling them to build a strong support network. The Parenting Center offers several courses, including Parent-and-Me Yoga and the popular L’Dor V’Dor Shabbat, a class in which Shabbat traditions are passed to a new generation of toddlers with the help of their grandparents who attend the class with them.

The Problem

The school administration was looking for an easier way for parents to register for classes and for staff to create rosters. In order to enroll children into the Parenting Center courses, Sinai Akiba Academy faculty had to send parents to a webpage where a PDF application form was available for parents to download, fill out, and send to the school. Manually creating rosters as parents returned registration forms was a tedious and time-consuming process. Another issue was that administrators needed a better system for tracking roster data and payments after the parents enrolled in a course. In addition, while Sinai Akiba Academy wanted an updated set of processes, they were concerned that a solution involving application technology would not be user-friendly and would trouble parents who find change difficult.

The Solution

After a year of looking for a “dependable and reliable product and company”, Sinai Akiba Academy and their Parenting Center turned to Popsicle. We at Popsicle understand that administrators are on the lookout for affordable, user-friendly technology to decrease administrative costs, and we knew our program software would provide an ideal fit and a quick remedy to the Parenting Center’s course registration issues. First, by using our software, parents no longer have to download a PDF registration form to complete the enrollment process. In fact, our software exists entirely in the cloud, so users on the administration end as well as parents on the enrollment end do not have to download anything to use the technology and to register for courses. Next, tracking roster data and payments once parents enroll in a course is simple with Popsicle. We provide a customizable parent portal and an elegant dashboard that is extremely easy to use. Finally, there is no longer an issue with tracking data because Sinai Akiba Academy now receives enrollment payments instantly and gets real-time updates and insight into who paid with 24/7 access. Once a parent pays for a class, the Popsicle software instantly adds them and their child to the roster for that course. Now, the Parenting Center’s online registration process is easy and includes automated email reminders to notify parents about changes, and upcoming classes.

The Results

After switching to Popsicle, admissions associate Yochanan Kabaker says there is no longer a need to create and update registration forms each semester, and there is no longer a need to coordinate with their technology department to upload forms to their website. In just the first year of use, the Parenting Center has seen a significant change in revenue and growth. In addition, Yochanan now has more time to focus on other tasks that include marketing the courses offered at the Parenting Center, and says that updates to the course are easy; he can do them from anywhere, including home. Furthermore, he says that parents love how easy it is to use the technology; and what would he tell others who have never used the Popsicle software? “I would brag about how it has made my job easier and that registration has never been so simple,” he says. “I love this product!”